I would like in this message to update you on deposits for the incoming freshman class and on the resulting budgetary outlook. We have very good news combined with some significant cautions and challenges.
As you know, the economic turmoil of the last nine months created a great deal of uncertainty about private college enrollments next year. Families were insecure about the economy and national experts were predicting shifts in enrollment patterns. At that time we had every reason to fear a small class. In response to these challenges, I decided that Ithaca College must hold down the rate of increase in tuition relative to prior years as well as make a significantly increased commitment to the financial aid budget. In addition, I asked the entire campus community to join the staff of the admission office in becoming "recruiters" for IC.
The results of these efforts yielded the second-highest number of applicants we have ever had. Over 1,200 prospective freshmen and families attended our Ithaca Today events (up 62 percent from prior years), and 4,000 admitted applicants participated in our social networking initiative, IC Peers.
Our goal for May 1 deposits was 1,765, in order to yield a fall class of 1,600. I am pleased to report we have surpassed this target and as of May 6 we have 2,158 deposits on hand. As always, we will have some "summer melt" from students who change their minds about Ithaca. However, even with the melt we will have this fall the largest entering class in the history of the College.
Preliminary data on the incoming class indicates that we have been able to maintain an academic profile comparable to the entering class of 2007, with average SATs of 1177 and the average student being in the top 20 percent of their class. In addition, the number of students of color increased from 196 in 2008 to 254 for 2009.
Given all that we were facing going into this recruitment cycle, these results are amazingly good news. I want to especially thank the admission and financial aid staffs for their leadership in getting us to this position of strength. I also want to offer an enthusiastic "thank you!" to the deans for their leadership in each of our schools, to the faculty who talked individually with students, and to the staff who greeted visitors to our campus. Your collaborative work was outstanding, and you all helped produce these wonderful results.
I promised some "cautions and challenges" along with the good news, so don’t stop reading yet!
Although the incoming class will be large, it will not provide us as much budgetary benefit as one might expect. In recent years, the price of a private college education has become more and more difficult for many families to bear, and the current economy has accelerated that trend. Even though we made the largest commitment to financial aid in College history for next year, many applicants came to us to ask for additional support. We also found that our offers of admission were more likely to be taken by students to whom we offered our best financial aid packages.
As a result, institutional financial aid commitments to the incoming class far exceed what we had planned. This will significantly diminish the net revenue that will come to us from these additional students. In addition, a portion of the new revenue must be allocated to reduce the planned budget deficit approved by the Ithaca College Board of Trustees in February.
We will of course do everything possible to make sure each student in the class of 2013 receives a quality Ithaca College experience. I have asked the vice presidents to begin work immediately on planning the adjustments necessary to serve this large incoming class. We will, as needed, create new sections of certain courses, expand housing options, and more. We must all be creative to ensure that we fulfill each student's expectations of the Ithaca College commitment to excellence.
In short, our successful recruitment of the largest incoming class in IC history will not give us the opportunity to fill a pot with gold and bury it in the quad. But it will enable us to remain the vibrant and financially healthy campus we have long been. It will enable us to continue our quest to be the standard of excellence for residential, comprehensive colleges. The challenges we will face next year will be very different than those we would have had if we had not met our enrollment target.
In only a few weeks, the class of 2013 will begin to arrive for their first experience as members of the Ithaca College community. They will have many questions at orientation and we will be working hard to have answers to these questions. They will come to a campus filled with excitement, engaged in planning a new strategic vision. They will encounter a faculty ready to energize them in pursuit of their highest academic achievements. They will experience first-hand the commitment that our faculty and staff have to each individual student.
The collaborative spirit that enabled us to recruit this class will also enable us to meet the exciting challenges of welcoming this class in true Ithaca College style. I look forward to working with you to produce another year of transformative educational and residential experience for our students.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20090510121245865